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When the Bible speaks about an event in someone's life that closely parallels an important spiritual truth, the term "type" is often used. For example, Abel's example of right attitude when offering his sacrifice to the Lord is a TYPE of ALL faithful servants for the Lord. When compared to his brother Cain, he had not only done the right thing but he had also done so with a right attitude. Similarly the end of Enoch's time on earth had been a TYPE of how Christians will someday be taken out of this earth by the Rapture. I Thessalonians 4:16-17 says, "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."

The ark that Noah had built to protect his family and all the animals that had been saved during the Great Flood had been a TYPE of the safety and protection that SAVED people will have from the eternal judgment of the Lord. Similarly those people outside the ark had been a TYPE of the eternal judgment that awaits those people that leave this existence outside of the Lord. Matthew 25:41-43 says, "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not." Abraham and Isaac had been a TYPE of God the Father and God the Son when the heavenly Father had offered the heavenly Son on the cross of Calvary to pay the sin debt of the world. John 1:29 says, "The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Romans 5:8 says, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

The parents of Moses had been a TYPE of the parents of Jesus who had hidden the newly born Son of God from those that would have killed Him. Moses had been a TYPE of Christ when he had led the people of God out of Egyptian bondage into the wilderness. When people come to Jesus by faith, He leads them out of the bondage of sin. If one considers the wilderness where those people had spent the next forty years to be a TYPE of the world, then Joshua had also been a TYPE of Christ when he had led the people into the Promised Land. Rahab had been a TYPE for the New Testament church that brings Gentiles into the assembly. Even though the Bible records other Gentiles being saved in the Old Testament, those SAVED Gentiles had not usually become part of the Jewish people. But Rahab had been one of the exceptions. Ephesians 3:1-7 says, "For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles…Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel…."

The three Hebrew boys in the fiery furnace of the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar had been a TYPE of Christians in this present world. They walk with the Lord beside them and they cannot be eternally hurt by anything that is in this world. Daniel 3:24-25 says, "Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God ." Daniel in the lion's den had been a TYPE of Christians that cannot be hurt by the symbolic lions of this world. He had also been a TYPE of those Christians that are opposed by the servants of this world and the enemies of God. Jonah had been a TYPE of those messengers that carry the message of the gospel to a lost and dying world.

He had also been a TYPE of Christ in that he had spent three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish. When Jesus had been crucified, He had spent three days and three nights in the grave before being gloriously resurrected. Matthew 12:38-40 says, "Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth . "

In closing this chapter and this book, the final word is that nothing is more important in this life than being in a personal relationship with the Lord. Based upon the true teachings of Jeremiah 29:12-13 and John 3:16, both of which have already been quoted in this text, that only happens when a person seeks the Lord with all of his or her heart, when he or she commits to Him, when he or she trusts in Him, and then when he or she actually enters into a personal relationship with Him. After the person has done those things, no endeavor in life is greater than studying the word of God with great diligence to better understand the marvelous salvation that is available to everyone because of the Lord. A careful study of the Bible will show many of the types that can be directly associated with all spiritual and eternal truth.